


Curses & Coursework

by kirbstommp



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, College, F/F, Gen, I'll update tags as they come up, Social Media, the curse is still a thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-01 00:04:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15762498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirbstommp/pseuds/kirbstommp
Summary: The College/ Curse/ Social Media AU that literally no one asked for.Part of the thread on my Twitter: https://twitter.com/kirbstommp/status/1032052586118098944





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pair had grown accustomed to this: Wynonna would spend the night at Shorty’s sweet talking drinks out of men who knew better and then would try her hardest to sneak back into the house. Waverly would catch her, silently clean up whatever mess she’d made, and make sure she made it into bed without breaking a limb. She couldn’t bring herself to be angry with her sister. This summer had been a rough one, Waverly knew that.
> 
> Wynonna was only months away from becoming the Earp heir, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... I don't know what this is gonna turn into, but it's a part of the Curses & Coursework social media au that I'm doing over on my Twitter! The chapters posted here are meant to further the story told through the tweets and texts posted there!
> 
> https://twitter.com/kirbstommp/status/1032052586118098944

“ _Wynonna!_ ”

Waverly groaned into her warm pillow, face burying further into the soft fabric. It was far too early for Gus to be yelling at her older sister already- though after a moment or two, she could remember hearing the loud crash in the hallway the night before. Waverly had flown to her door and tore it open, the unplugged salt lamp from her bedside table clutched in both hands, ready to fight whatever would-be attacker sneaking into the house. Her sister was braced against the wall holding two picture frames, staring wide-eyed at the frame she’d knocked to the floor and, once she noticed Waverly standing in the doorway, hissed out a plea for her to be quiet. The younger girl’s shoulders slumped as the adrenaline seemingly evaporated from her bloodstream. She set the lamp down gently before reaching out to take the photos from her sister and hooking a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of Wynonna’s room. The pair had grown accustomed to this: Wynonna would spend the night at Shorty’s sweet talking drinks out of men who knew better and then would try her hardest to sneak back into the house. Waverly would catch her, silently clean up whatever mess she’d made, and make sure she made it into bed without breaking a limb. She couldn’t bring herself to be angry with her sister. This summer had been a rough one, Waverly knew that.

Wynonna was only months away from becoming the Earp heir, after all.

In true Earp fashion, Wynonna had denied the existence of said curse ever since their daddy and sister had died. The night had become one of Waverly’s earliest memories; huge, terrifying men dragging Willa and their daddy out of the windows of their childhood home, Wynonna dropping the gun after the shot found home in Ward’s back, the scream ripping through Waverly’s small body- all over some fabled family curse. As she grew, the littlest Earp sister made a point to learn as much as she could about this “curse” while Wynonna was being sent off to hospital after hospital and doctor after doctor. She didn’t come home much those first few years, but when she did she would come into Waverly’s room in their aunt and uncle’s house at night and curl up in bed with her. Waverly would rub her back while she cried into a pillow that wasn’t hers in a house that would take so long to become a home.

Gus had never believed in the curse, either, but there had always been something that sparked behind Curtis’ eyes whenever Waverly insisted that one of them tell her everything about what was going on. He had been the one that helped her start gathering all the information she could find relating to Wyatt Earp and his gun Peacemaker. She was only eleven when she started, and the habit had only grown by leaps and bounds.

Two polite raps against the worn wood of her bedroom door made her groan again. “Get up, girl.” Gus’ voice was softer now, only a twinge of frustration still audible. “‘Less you want me hollerin’ at you, too.” Without word, Waverly raised a thumb in acknowledgement, and her aunt let the door click behind her as she left.

After a few more needed moments with her inviting blankets and pillow, Waverly padded down the stairs to the tune of a little diddy she liked to call “How Dare You Come Back Into My House In The Middle of the Night” featuring a special remix of “God, You Still Smell Like Whiskey.” She could hear Gus all the way from the kitchen. The woman wasn’t one to yell, really; Curtis had always said that she spoke with passion as he imitated the way her hands would dart out around her in frustration, how she’d sigh dramatically and run a hand through her salt and pepper gray hair. It always made the girls laugh under their breaths, and it always made Gus roll her eyes and slap at his shoulder.

Today, Wynonna was slumped onto the kitchen table, one cheek pressed against the countertop. “Good morning!” Waverly’s sing-song voice rang out through the small space and Wynonna winced. “God, shut _up_.” The older girl’s voice was gravelly from a night of drunken revelry. From her place at the sink Gus spun to face the table, sending the wet sponge in her hand through the air to make contact with the top of Wynonna’s head with a sickening _thwap_. “Don’t be mean to your sister just ‘cause you’re hungover!”

Curtis and Waverly both bit back laughter as a wet-hired Wynonna stormed up the stairs.

Waves busied herself with pouring coffee into her favorite mug, the blue one with metallic golden specs around the bottom. Three-fourths coffee, the rest reserved for the almond milk that waited for her in the door of the fridge.

“‘S gettin’ worse.” The air in the room was suddenly thick, like Gus could run her knife through it and spread it across the toast in her hand. Waverly hadn’t noticed that her throat was dry until she tried to speak and nothing came out at first. She cleared her throat.

“What’s that?”

“Her drinkin’.” Her aunt never looked up from the bacon sizzling in the skillet in front of her. “It’s gettin’ out of hand.”

_Maybe if you hadn’t convinced her she was crazy at age twelve, we wouldn’t be here_ , Waves wanted to say. She couldn’t, though. Instead she could only muster up: “Yeah. I’ll talk to her.” She scooped up her mug and plucked the piece of toast that Curtis held up for her as she walked past without another word.

She didn’t knock before nuging Wynonna’s door open, moving quietly to the bedside and perching herself on the edge. “Hey,” she offered up, moving her hand to start rubbing circles into her sister’s back. It was like they were kids again, Waverly whispering gently to her sister while she cried over their daddy and mama (who had left them long before the attack) and Willa.

“I just want to sleep.” There was a bite in her words that reminded Waverly of the pain that had settled deep in Wynonna’s chest after all these years. She pushed past it, though, made her strokes against Wynonna’s back more deliberate.

“We have to talk about it eventually, Wyn.”

“No, we really don-”

“You turn twenty in September.” Her hand stilled against the other girl’s back. “We have to talk about it.”

“About _what_?” Wynonna’s voice was loud in the quiet room all of a sudden, filling the air with electricity for a split second, and Waverly jumped. “About how I’m crazy? About how you’re crazy for thinking that something is going to magically happen on my twentieth birthday? About how our fucking family is _cursed_?” The word slid out of her mouth, coated in bile and disgust. She still wouldn’t look at Waverly.

“What happens if it’s real?” The younger girl’s voice was still quiet despite the outburst. “What happens if revenants and demons start showing up on campus? We need to tell them-”

“ _No_.” It was emphatic. Wynonna’s tone dared Waverly to contest it. “We are not telling any of them because it isn’t _real_ , Waverly. It isn’t. I’m not some goddamn magical being.”

“I mean, not yet you’re not.”

Wynonna turned to face her, then. Her eyes burned with anger and what Waverly was certain was actual, real fear. “I am not crazy and we are not cursed.” Her dark hair splayed out around her face on the pillow below her head, sticking to her cheek where tears had made it wet. They stared at each other in a moment of silence before Wynonna sighed. “And I’m going back to sleep.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When she drew her hands back, a small, bright green tree frog perched itself contentedly on the end of her index finger. Nicole chuckled a little when Waverly smiled over at her.
> 
> “You Earp girls won’t ever find a prince if you don’t kiss them.”
> 
> Waverly shrugged. “Maybe I don’t want a prince.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did someone say surprise Wayhaught backstory? Yeah, I didn't either, but here we are! This wasn't supposed to be a part of this story at all, and maybe this isn't where it should be added, but we're gonna do it anyway. You'll get the ACTUAL update very soon, as I'm working on that now!
> 
> This is a part of the Curses & Coursework social media AU that's on my Twitter: https://twitter.com/kirbstommp/status/1032052586118098944

Waverly Earp vividly remembered the moment that Nicole Haught had taken her breath away and had never given it back.

God, how cheesy.

It was the summer before Waverly’s sixteenth birthday, back when Big Deep Lake was actually big and deep. The Earp girls had been going to the lake to hide out for as long as they could remember, with Nicole right by their side. Wynonna and Nicole would inevitably end up in the water, splashing around and squealing when frogs swam too close to them. Nicole would always scoop one up and chase Wyn around, telling her that she’d never find her prince if she didn’t kiss a few frogs. Waverly would giggle at them from the bank, her nose buried in whatever book she was enthralled in that week.

It had become a joke that Waverly never wanted to swim with them. The first time they had ever waded into the murky water she had panicked, claimed that she didn’t want to get her hair wet. The truth was even sillier: Curtis had told the girls years ago that a monster lived at the bottom of the lake who would drag little girls under the surface and never let them back up again. Wynonna and Nicole had always laughed about it, about the absurdity of anything malicious living in their lake, but the story had always stuck with Waverly deep in the hollow of her chest.

She was old enough to understand that Curtis had meant for the story to scare them into staying away from their hideout. They were young and should have been much more careful around the water than they ever were, but the worst thing that had happened during the long summer days they had spent out in those woods was a bee sting that had landed on Wynonna’s cheek. They had seen a snake once, which Waverly had declared was a garter snake that was more afraid of them than they were of it. Really, they had come to feel safe in the woods- and safe wasn’t something that the Earp girls had known well.

Late that summer, after the leaves had just started to change their colors, Waverly decided that she was done being a baby about the supposed monster that lived in the lake. She had watched Wynonna and Nicole spend countless hours in that water and only once had Nicole emerged with a leech. If that was the extent of the big, bad, scary thing in the lake, Waves thought that she could handle it. Definitely.

But there was something about the water that day, something about how inviting it seemed that churned up the old ghost story in her chest like the beginnings of a storm. She’d decided, again, to stay on her little blanket with her copy of The Time Traveller’s Wife. The other two had wandered off while Waverly stared at the surface of the eerily still water. No breeze rippled its surface, no croaking bullfrog called out from its edge. Nothing in or around the lake seemed to move that day.

After a while, she heard one of them yell in the distance about racing back to the lake. The younger girl grinned when Nicole was the first to break through the tree line, tugging her shirt up and over her head and tossing it to Waverly before leaping into the water. Wynonna was only a few moments behind her best friend, tugging furiously at her shorts and dropping them next to Waverly along with her tank. “Phone’s in there,” she said, pointing to the pocket of her shorts, “grab it.” Before Waverly could fish the device out Wynonna was gone again, landing her jump onto Nicole’s back and dragging them both underwater. The storm in Waverly’s chest grew slowly but surely, sending electricity sparking across her skin.

What would she do if something were to happen to either of them while they were out here? Waverly was far too small to carry either of the bigger girls, she knew that. Maybe she could drag them on her blanket like a makeshift sleigh- but probably only one of them, which would leave the other alone and possibly hurt in the woods, and that simply would not do. She’d just have to find a way to save them both, as impossible as it seemed.

A quick series of vibrations against Waverly’s leg brought her back to reality, where neither her sister nor Nicole were hurt, where everything was as safe as it always was. The name and associated photo that flashed across the screen of Wynonna’s phone made her smile a little crookedly.

“Wyn,” she called out as she waved the phone in the air, “Mercedes is calling you.”

Wynonna’s face flushed even in the warm sunlight. “ _Calling me_?” She glanced at Nicole wide-eyed, who burst into a small fit of laughter. The older girl scrambled up the slope of the bank, kicking mud and leaves up behind her. Waverly had already grabbed a towel out of her bag, holding it out to her sister to dry her hands and face on, before holding up the phone. In a flash Wynonna was gone, off into the woods to have some kind of privacy.

After a few moments, Nicole settled herself down onto the blanket next to Waverly. Typically she would groan, tell Nic that she was getting her favorite picnic blanket wet with gross lake water, but she didn’t. This time when she glanced over at Nicole, she giggled.

“You, uh, have a friend there.” Waverly muttered. “Let me, just…” Her hands moved slowly, one cupping in front of the thing to block Nicole’s view of it, the other gently nudging it into her palm. When she drew her hands back, a small, bright green tree frog perched itself contentedly on the end of her index finger. Nicole chuckled a little when Waverly smiled over at her.

“You Earp girls won’t ever find a prince if you don’t kiss them.”

Waverly shrugged. “Maybe I don’t want a prince.”

There was a long silence before Waverly let the frog hop off of her finger and into the grass beside them.

“Why don’t you swim with us?”  
The younger girl blinked over at the redhead in response, and after a moment said, “I, uh… I guess I’d just rather read.”

Nicole let a mischievous smirk crawl across her lips. “I think you’re just chicken.”

A crack of lightning ripped through Waverly’s chest, catching something inside of her on fire. She matched the glimmer in the other girl’s eyes with her own. “I am _not_ chicken.”

The grin that spread out on Nicole’s face was downright infuriating. “Well then,” she said as she stood, offering a hand out to Waverly, “let’s go swim.”

She squinted up at the taller girl, sighing in defeat when she grabbed her hand. This morning when she had decided to wear her swimsuit under her clothes like she always did, she had told herself that she would actually get into the water this time and, as luck would have it, she wasn’t going to go back on that. Even if it had taken some prodding from an annoying punk like Nicole.

The water was cold, which Waves should have expected. The air had grown cooler in the late afternoon, the breeze carrying a nip of its own. She was sure that they would all be sick the next morning, and Gus would have all their heads for it. She could only focus on the way all of the electricity from the storm in her chest was concentrated in the palm that was still pressed lightly into Nicole’s, though; Gus would just have to be a bridge that they would cross when they got there. Mud and muck squished up between her toes as they moved further out into the water. “See,” Waverly said proudly as she let the water slip up to her shoulders, “not chicken.”

“Your feet are still on the ground, that doesn’t count,” Nicole laughed.

Waves rolled her eyes and pulled her hand out of Nicole’s. She kicked up off of the bottom of the lake, taking broad strokes until she was out in the middle of the water, then planted her feet down into the mud on the other side. The look that she shot back over her shoulder to Nicole was one of confidence and pride. It was almost loud enough to drown out the uneasiness scraping against her insides entirely.

It was when she was she was moving back out into the water that it happened: long appendages- fingers, she was almost sure- wrapped themselves firmly around her ankle, sharp things- _fingernails_ \- biting into the flesh near the swell of her bone. Waverly tried to kick herself free, tried desperately to knock the thing’s grip from her leg and, as she opened her mouth to scream, was promptly yanked beneath the surface.

The water was dark and murky, and Waverly couldn’t keep her eyes open for more than a second. That was alright, though. She knew that if she could open her eyes, if she could see what was pulling her down, down, down, she would panic. Panicking meant less oxygen in her lungs, which meant less time to try and figure out what to do.

She wasn’t even sure that Nicole had seen her go under. She couldn’t count on anyone coming to save her. She’d have to try and save herself.

The problem was that whatever had its hand wrapped around her leg was strong and _heavy_ , much heavier than she was. That was the moment that Waverly realized that it would be so much easier for Wynonna and Nicole to get her out of the forest and get her to safety. The plan would have never worked the other way around.

Curtis hadn’t been telling a story, after all. There was a monster living at the bottom of Big Deep Lake. She could feel herself beginning to lose consciousness as the storm began to subside in her chest. Then, all of the energy from the storm concentrated in her hand again- the one that Nicole had been holding before.

The one that Nicole was holding again.

Waverly didn’t know how long it had taken Nicole to pull her free. She didn’t know how long it had taken to pull her to the bank, or to drag her up the slope to her blanket. She couldn’t hear the water anymore, only Nicole’s voice in her ear.

“Oh my god, Waves, please don’t die.”

“Please be okay. Please just _breathe_.”

“Come on, Waverly. We need you here. Wynonna needs you, _I_ need you, _please_.”

The water tasted earthy in her throat, in her lungs. She rolled herself to the side just as green lake water exploded from her mouth while she coughed and gasped for air. Then Nicole was there, rubbing her back and moving her hair from her face. Gasps for air turned to frightened sobs and Nicole was still there, pulling the smaller girl into her lap, wrapping her up in a towel before wrapping her up in her arms. “Some-something tr-tried to-” Waverly cut herself off and stretched out her leg. She stared in horror as four little crescent moon cuts oozed blood across her wet skin. She looked up at Nicole, praying that she was seeing the same thing, praying that she wasn’t going entirely insane. But Nicole’s eyes were just as wide as hers were, and there were a few tears still rolling down her cheeks.

The older girl nodded slowly. “Yeah. I see them.”

Almost instinctually, Nicole reached out for Waverly’s bag. Waverly had told them that she kept a first aid kit at all times, just in case another bee sting incident occurred. Waverly never moved from her spot while Nicole gently dabbed at the cuts with a fresh towel and cleaned each cut with peroxide and covered them with their own bandages.

Maybe Waverly didn’t want a prince after all.


End file.
